It won’t be Fairfield that is Associate Head Coach Barry Rohrssen’s first head coaching gig.

Fairfield University has offered its vacant men’s basketball coaching job to Boston College assistant Ed Cooley, according to a source familiar with the situation.

FoxSports.com has reported that Cooley has accepted the job, and that a news conference will be held Tuesday at 11 a.m. to officially introduce him as the Stags’ new coach. Officials at Fairfield had not returned calls to the Connecticut Post Saturday night confirming that Cooley had accepted the job. According to a source, Fairfield athletic director Gene Doris and the search committee had finished meeting on Saturday and decided to offer the job to Cooley. Other candidates who had been rumored to be in the running were Boston College assistant Bill Coen, UConn assistant Tom Moore and Pittsburgh assistant Barry Rohrssen. Another source said that Larry Shyatt, a Florida assistant, was a finalist for the job. Shyatt’s name had not commonly come up in speculation as a job candidate.

Rohrssen had been the front-runner, and Coen was supposedly their other choice. News stories, though, indicated Coen bombed his interview, and Fairfield just decided to take a look at Cooley who wowed them in the interviews.

Fairfield University is in Fairfield, CT (go figure) which is just about 50 miles or so from NYC. So while they definitely recruit very strongly from NYC area, Cooley had more ties that spread throughout the New England area for recruiting as well.

I’m not sure if the Manhattan job opening and the potential interest in Rohrssen made them change their minds, but I wouldn’t be surprised.